Saturday, November 24, 2012

Baby Bump: Week 39 / 5 Days Postpartum

I wrote this post yesterday, when it was Week 39/5 Days Postpartum, but failed to hit "post" before I fell asleep. Whoops!

How far along? Would have been 39 weeks - but 5 days postpartum instead!

Weight gain/loss: I'm not sure what my total weight gain was exactly - somewhere in the range of 45 pounds. I'm down about 15 so far!

Feeling: It depends on the moment, but overall - pretty well. Mentally, I am great until the exhaustion hits. Emotionally, I am so in love with my little family. Physically...recovery has been tougher than I anticipated. I am still really sore from having a fair amount of stitches, which has made it tough to do much of anything that requires moving. I pretty much hang out on one corner of the couch all day. With Lincoln, I was feeling great after about two days. I am trying to be patient and give myself time to recover, but I feel so happy to not be pregnant, I'm having a hard time accepting that all I need to do at this point is rest.

Maternity clothes? Still wearing maternity jeans - if I actually get dressed. But I am mostly wearing pajama pants. It's getting cold, so I may break out my favorite hoodies this weekend! I also need to figure out how many nursing-appropriate shirts I have...

Sleep: We are sleeping remarkably well. When we brought Lincoln home, I don't think anyone slept for four or five days. Addie is content to sleep curled up in my arm for most of the night, just waking up once or twice to eat. In fact, Lincoln was up twice as many times as she was last night. I am doing okay with the lack of sleep because I overall feel so much better having the baby outside of me! I have taken a few unplanned naps in the past few days, but Andrew has been super awesome and taken my noisy little Lincoln to another part of the house when Addie and I fall asleep on the couch.

Breastfeeding: I could not be more relieved that breastfeeding is wonderful. Adelaide's latch has been amazing from the beginning. Occasionally she is sleepy and I have to wake her up to make her eat. But she is doing great! We have no real schedule, just feeding whenever she gives any hunger cues - and we are all so much more relaxed and peaceful because of it. My milk came in about two and a half days after she was born, probably thanks to the fact that Lincoln nursed throughout my pregnancy. This has also caused me to have very little soreness and (so far) no crazy leaking! I am also not engorged at all, because Lincoln is happy to take care of any excess. I am not complaining at all. After the extremely difficult start to breastfeeding I had with Lincoln, this experience has been a dream.

Side note - I never really intended to tandem nurse when my breastfeeding journey started almost two years ago. But here we are! Planning a longer post about this soon.

Family Adjustment: Lincoln is overall transitioning better than we thought he might. So far he has only poked Addie in the eye once and crawled over her a couple of times. He seems content with her presence most of the time - but also doesn't really want to touch/hug/kiss her. I'm okay with this - I know they're going to be great friends and there's plenty of time for that to happen. I think he even said "baby" this morning. For a child who pretty much communicates entirely with words that are vehicular (car, truck, choo-choo) - this melts my heart! I am doing well this week because Andrew has been home to keep up with Lincoln. Next week will probably be a little more difficult for all of us.

Best Things about Not Being Pregnant: Oh my goodness!! So many things! Food tastes good. No more heartburn. No more itchy belly. No more trying to roll over in the middle of the night with a baby's head in my pelvis. No more children warring at each other from inside and outside me. Even with the difficult recovery, I am so so happy that she is here and I am done. For now, at least.